Pregnancy this time around was 100% different then when I was
pregnant with Mason starting with the decision to have a second child. I
always wanted a huge family. Before Mason I would always say I wanted 4
kids. Fast forward to having Mason for a year and I wasn't sure I
wanted another one at all. We had to have several conversations weighing
the pros and cons because we were just so happy with our family of one.
I was so afraid I wouldn't be able to love another child as fiercely as
I loved my 1st born baby boy. He was the light of my life & I just
couldn't see anyone matching up to him. In the end we decided we wanted
Mason to have a friend and sibling. Both of us value our relationships
with our siblings so much and we wanted the same thing for him. After
talking to others this fear of not having enough love for another is a
common thing.
With
Mason I was completely shocked that I was actually pregnant. I had
expected it to take quite a while & I didn't know what to look for
as far as symptoms. However, this time around I knew that I was pregnant
before I got an actual positive pregnancy test. I had many of the same
symptoms I had with Mason. The Sunday before I had a positive test,
Blake & I stood in church and as we sang a worship song tears just
flowed down my face & I couldn't stop them the entire song!! This
actually became an every Sunday thing throughout my pregnancy. Something
about the songs just made me tear up. I thought in that moment that I
was definitely pregnant. However, that week morning after morning my
pregnancy tests were negative. I knew it was technically too early &
I shouldn't take a test until Friday but I just felt like I was. On
Wednesday when I was getting ready for work I had another sign of
pregnancy that made me say ok yep even though the test is negative
there's no denying this! Sure enough on Friday morning (the 2nd day of
school) I woke up at 4 am and had my 1st positive pregnancy tests. About
5-6 more tests and I actually believed it. I was of course so elated
that I couldn't go back to sleep so I got up, worked out & anxiously
waited for my boys to wake up to share the news with them.
My
sisters had actually encouraged us to not find out what we were
having. I thought this would be an impossible task but a few months
before Blake's sister had done the same thing and the anticipation of
finding out was so much fun I just knew I wanted to experience that as
well. So at all our of dr appointments and our anatomy scan we would
just look away if it got close to that part. At the anatomy scan the
tech put our gender in an envelope and left it in her lab she said we
could come get it if we changed our mind or she would mail it on May
1st. We were actually convinced that Liam was a girl because in one
appointment our doctor said oh look at her...ehh he/she/it's little
face. We left that appointment and went to get some coffee & when we
sat down I said I know what we are having she slipped up & Blake
said I heard it too. On the count of 3 we both said what we heard and
sure enough were convinced from that point that little Liam was a girl.
Pregnancy
with Mason & Liam was very different. I didn't know if I should
chalk it up to the baby possibly being a girl or the fact that I had
been taking my Plexus supplements. My weight gain on my scale at home
was 39 pounds (44 on the scale at the dr) as opposed to 45 with Mason.
And the weight gain was much slower. I'm convinced it would have been
less however Thanksgiving & Christmas absolutely killed me (12
pounds that month..eeek!!!)
During the 1st trimester with
Mason I constantly felt sick, I spent every day just wishing I could
throw up & I drank ginger ale constantly in hopes it would curb the
nausea. However, with Liam I felt pretty great for the most part. I had
some nausea but it was easily subsided when I drank my Plexus. One thing
that was not different was the 1st trimester exhaustion. I think it may
actually have been worse with Liam as it all hit at the beginning of
school & I had a toddler to keep up with that didn't allow the naps.
(top pictures with Liam bottom pictures with Mason)
2nd
trimester was fantastic. I had my energy back & I still felt great!
With Mason I struggled with acid reflux so bad that practically every
night I would wake up in the middle of vomiting. It was awful! We had
gone out to eat for a rare date night at PF Changs in the early 20 weeks
and the next 2 days/nights my reflux and waking up vomiting was back so
I decided I wasn't doing this for another 20 weeks. I changed my diet
up and it made a huge impact. I would eat a normal breakfast, a large
lunch and a snack and then for dinner I would have something very light
like toast or crackers and I would always eat it by 5pm. That was
definitely a saving grace this pregnancy and a big reason that my weight
gain didn't pile on all at once like it did with Mason.
(Top pictures with Liam, Bottom pictures with Mason)
3rd
trimester became incredibly uncomfortable. Little Liam was much lower
than Mason ever was & I was carrying around/lifting a toddler which
meant I had so much back and tailbone pain. I found that the birthing
ball helped a lot with this. I would sit on the ball all evening rather
than any chair in the house. I also became very tired again. I felt like
I could never sleep enough it was almost comparable to the first
trimester. However, unlike with Mason, I was actually sleeping at night.
I had constant insomnia during my pregnancy with Mason. I also
experienced a lot of labor signs with Liam where I didn't with Mason.
There were several times I had contractions that were 5 minutes apart
and would last quite a while, however, every time I got into the bathtub
it stopped. Our dr, a few friends and both Blake and I were quite
certain I wouldn't make it to our due date. At 36 weeks I was actually
put on bedrest due to contractions until I could get into my dr. At that
point she assessed and decided baby could come whenever so no more
bedrest and she would probably see me soon...haha my stubborn children
find themselves all too comfortable in my tummy.
(top Liam, bottom Mason)
We
discussed our "birthing plan" early on with our dr. because one thing I
wanted to do was try to have an all natural birth. This isn't something
that I discussed with anyone but Blake, our dr & 1 or 2 other
people. I didn't want to hear the negatives from anyone about what I
wanted or to be told "I told you so" from anyone if I didn't go through
with it. I felt like everyone (including) myself has always joked about
how much of a baby I am so I just wanted to prove to myself that I could
do it. The other
thing
I wanted to do was experience going into labor on my own. With Mason I
was induced and I just wanted that experience of it happening on its
own. However, after much discussion she explained to us that when I was
in labor Mason wouldn't drop into the birth canal because he was too big
for my body. He wasn't outlandishly huge (8.4) but my pelvis was too
small for him to naturally drop. I was able to push him into the
birthing canal without a problem so she wanted to induce in hopes that
we could avoid baby getting to big to reduce the chance of a c-section.
I wasn't thrilled about it but also trust my dr so I said ok. She also
said while it was my decision she felt that having an epidural would be
better for my body to relax and be able to push the baby into the
birthing canal especially if he/she turned out to be bigger than Mason.
She doesn't rely on growth scans, etc because they can be so inaccurate
so was just relying on what she saw every week saying she was confident
that the baby would be a minimum of 8 pounds. So at that my "birthing
plan" went out the window & I signed up for an epidural and set an
induction date of April 23rd. While I was bummed that nothing was going
according to my plan I set a new plan and began making plans for Mason
for when the baby arrived.....meanwhile God was laughing at all these
things I called "plans" because he had entirely different ones......
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